


Take Good Care of Your Children

by blueelvewithwings



Series: Spanking Sunday [45]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Child Abuse, Childhood Friends, Hurt Barry Allen, Hurt/Comfort, Lewis Snart Being an Asshole, Lewis Snart's A+ Parenting, M/M, Non-Consensual, Punishment, Spanking, Underage - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 12:44:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19791151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueelvewithwings/pseuds/blueelvewithwings
Summary: Barry always comes to Leo's house when Lewis isn't home. Today though, Mr. Snart came home early.





	Take Good Care of Your Children

**Author's Note:**

> //Please mind the tags, Lewis' behaviour here is very much not okay and I most definitely do not condone such behaviour. Please stay safe and do not venture here if you cannot handle child abuse subjects.  
> And also, don't be an asshole and hurt children, of course!

Originally, it was Leo who‘d caught Barry in their house. He‘d seen the younger boy sneak around and had thought he was a burglar, a kid from the neighborhood that didn‘t know what was good for himself. As it turned out though, Barry was from the other side of the city, and he was looking for the murderer of his mother. Leo had decided not to toss him out, but to help him instead. That was how Barry ended up coming to his house every week, sneaking in after school with some new book or newspaper article to go over with Leo, whispering about possibilities and theories until Barry had to sneak back out and go home so he wouldn‘t risk being caught by Lewis and so Joe wouldn‘t miss him. Joe was not his father, Leo had found out, but he‘d taken him in and let Barry live with him for the moment. Leo wanted to offer Barry a place to live as well, but he knew that he couldn‘t, so he never brought it up.

Leo had been mortified when Lewis had come home early that day, alread slightly drunk and grumbling about a twisted ankle. At his order, Leo had opened a beer with shaky hands and brought it over to him and then had gone to hide in his room. He had no way of contacting Barry, had no idea which direction he even came from before he climbed through Leo‘s kitchen window every week, so he knew he couldn‘t warn him. So he hid in his room, back against the door, and waited for disaster to happen.

And sure enough, there were the tell-tale sounds of Barry opening the window sometime later, and then the clumsy boy made too much noise when actually climbing in, like he always did. Normally, Leo would be standing in the kitchen now already, a smile on his face as he watched his friend climb in, but he knew that that wasn‘t a possibility today. He couldn‘t risk the wrath of Lewis. He had Lisa to look after, after all. It wasn‘t like his father would take care of her, and he hadn‘t seen Lisa‘s mom for months. So he closed his eyes, leaned back against the door, and waited.

„Who‘re you?“ came his father‘s gruff voice, followed by what Leo knew was the click of a gun.

„I-- uh… I got lost, Sir?“ Barry‘s voice sounded so scared and confused, and Leo could see him in front of his mind‘s eye, looking around frantically for Leo, trying to find out where he went wrong, looking for someone to come rescue him. Only that no one would come, and that thought made Leo want to throw up. Barry was his friend, after all.

But Barry didn‘t need him like Lisa did.

„Got lost? By climbing into my kitchen window? what‘re you looking to steal, boy!“

„I- I-… I‘m sorry, Sir, it‘s.. uh… an inside joke with a friend. I must have… gotten the wrong house? I‘m so sorry, I‘ll… I‘ll go.“ The lie sounded hollow even to Leo‘s ears, but Barry was at least making a valiant attempt to try and talk himself out of the situation. As if there were any houses in the neighbourhood where it would be acceptable to climb into the window to surprise a friend. Leo knew that, Barry knew that. And worst of all, Lewis knew that.

„Nice try, kid.“ He could almost see Lewis leering at Barry even though he had his eyes pressed close, and it made him feel sick.

„Now, I got a son almost your age, so I‘ll be nice and not blow your brains out, but I‘ll teach you a lesson before you go. Come here.“

Oh god. Not that, Leo thought. Please, _not that._

„...Sir?“ Barry didn‘t sound reassured by that at all, and Leo could only imagine what Lewis was trying to do to him right now. There were sounds of a little scuffle, and then a boyish yelp followed by a muffled scream, and then things seemed to settle down.

„I‘ll teach you your lesson, boy, and you‘ll be grateful. You brat, simply breaking into my house like the useless filth you are.“

There was a slapping sound and another yelp, and suddenly Leo knew exactly what was going on. He‘d been in that position often enough himself, after all. Lewis perched on his armchair, Barry over his knee, torn jeans pushed down around his knees, panty-covered ass up in the air. And Lewis… Lewis probably used the carpet cleaner, that seemed to be his favourite. In the beginning, he‘d also used his slippers to spank Leo, but these days he only used them to toss them at Leo‘s head when he wasn‘t fast enough again.

Leo curled up and gripped his knees, opening his eyes only long enough to see that Lisa was still peacefully sleeping in her crib before pressing them closed again, trying to block out the sounds that were assaulting his ears from downstairs, but he knew that it was futile. He could hear Barry yelping and crying, pleading with Lewis to just let him go, and he knew without seeing him that Lewis would not be persuaded. He‘d spank Barry until he‘d calmed down and deemed the boy punished enough, and then Leo could only hope that he‘d just let him go without further retribution.

„Please, Sir, stop!“, he could hear Barry crying, and it broke his heart to hear his friend beg like that. Barry deserved better, Barry should not have to deal with the shithole that was Leo‘s home, he should be home with his Joe and Iris and have dinner and learn to be happy again. But instead, he came to Leo‘s place every week and smiled as if Leo was worth smiling at and talked about his parents and school and just treated Leo as if he was someone normal. Not the outcast that he was at school, not Lewis‘ servant that he was at home, not the replacement mother that he had to be to Lisa. Barry deserved so much better, Leo wanted to run down and ask Lewis to punish him instead, but then he wouldn‘t be able to walk and fix Lisa a bottle later when she woke up and cried and Lewis always threatened to toss her out of the window when she wouldn‘t stop crying for a while, so he couldn‘t risk that.

He cared for Lisa more than he cared for Barry, he tried to tell himself, but he knew it wasn‘t true. It was just that Barry could look after himself more than Lisa could, so he had to be there for Lisa. It wasn‘t like he had a choice, really.

He could feel tears starting to spill from his eyes as the crying downstairs continued, and he hoped he only imagined the sounds of the carpet cleaner starting to sound like it was hitting naked skin instead of soft cotton.

„Stop! Please!“ Barry‘s begging was desparate by now, but Lewis had stopped responding to it completely. The rhythm of the slaps was getting faster and faster, and Leo knew that this was Lewis working himself into a frenzy, his focus zeroing in on nothing but the spanking, and that he’d ride the high of lording his power over someone else, of chastising them and enforcing his punishment on them until he’d worn himself out, until the soreness in his arm would overtake the sheer jolts of power that he seemed to experience from dishing out these spankings. Leo had no idea if that would be sooner or later than when chastising his own son. He pressed his hands in front of his mouth to stop any sounds from escaping, and then he cried. Cried for his friend, for his shitty father, the childhood he’d never had, the friendship he was sure to lose now. His only friend. The only one he could talk to besides babbling away at Lisa. The only person who seemed to see him for who he was. Driven away by Lewis after being humiliated and pushed down into the dirt. How fitting, really. Because why should Leo ever get to keep something nice.

If only Barry had walked in on Leo being punished though, and had walked out on him. That would have spared him so much pain.

By the time that Lewis was done, Barry’s cries had died down to sniffles. Leo could hear the crash when Lewis pushed the prone body off his lap, and then some shuffling and more quiet crying as Barry no doubt pulled up his pants and grabbed his backpack. Leo heard the front door open and then close, and he scrambled to the window to see Barry limp away from the house, clearly still wiping his eyes and crying even as he hobbled away as fast as he could without even looking back. It was for the best, probably. Coming to Leo’s house was never going to end well for Barry.

“Boy! Why is dinner not ready!” Lewis’ shout tore him out of his thoughts and he quickly wiped his own eyes before running down the stairs, mumbling something about homework and quickly grabbing some things from the fridge to start fixing dinner. He barely even felt the slipper to his head and the yelled insults about hurrying the fuck up already.

On the floor beside Lewis’ armchair, there was a new newspaper article about the Doctor Who Murdered His Wife. Leo closed his eyes and gave himself a moment to miss Barry as the fat in the pan heated up. He should have known Lewis would take the only good thing in his life from him.

Barry never came back to Leo’s house. Leo told himself it was for the best.

Sometimes, Leo thought about going to look for Barry. He didn’t know where he lived though, or his last name.

“I’m sorry you chose me over him”, Lisa told him when she was fourteen.

“I’m not”, he replied, and meant it. Mostly.

“Why didn’t you stop me?” he asked in return when Barry asked him why he’d done it. He didn’t stop staring at Lewis’ lifeless body.

“He beat an eleven-year-old boy with a carpet cleaner”, came the simple reply, and Len’s head flew up. The hair, the eyes, that stupid, never-ending smile… he should have seen it. He should have known the moment he’d met the Flash’s eyes and _felt something._ He didn’t feel anything anymore these days.

“Barry”, he breathed and reached out across his abuser’s dead body, reaching out to start mending the rift that Lewis had once put between them.

And Barry, kind, forgiving soul that he was, reached out and clasped his hands with Len’s, as if it was no big deal. As if Len’s whole world hadn’t be turned upside down by the realisation that this was his friend. His first friend, and the one he still missed like a limb. As if they’d simply been apart for the holidays and were now back to normal. As if everything would be good again now. But maybe, Len thought, when he had a smile like that to look at, everything would indeed be good again.

“Len. Let’s go check on Lisa.”


End file.
